MCDs prepone budgets ahead of polls

Usually, the three corporations presented their budgets in second or third week of December.

The three municipal corporations are slated to present their annual budgets this month -- the last before the civic bodies elections due to be held in April next year -- with officials saying the exercise has begun early this year to avoid the model code of conduct interfering with budget announcements.

Officials said that the exercise has begun early this year to avoid the model code of conduct interfering with budget announcements. (HT File Photo)

Usually, the three corporations presented their budgets in second or third week of December.

Senior officials privy to the budget preparations said South Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner Gyanesh Bharti will present the budget on Tuesday, and his counterparts in North Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation will table their budgets on November 25 and 26, respectively.

All three civic bodies in Delhi are going through an acute financial crunch and running behind on paying salaries to their staff that has led to repeated strikes. No new projects have been implemented in the last couple of years with the Covid pandemic further hitting their financial health. The opposition has blamed the mess on the mismanagement and rampant corruption in the three civic bodies that are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The SDMC which was the only corporation with a surplus till 2018-19, has a current deficit of ₹200 crore. A senior SDMC official who asked not to be named said, “Year after year the municipal commissioner has proposed increasing the existing tax rates and introduction of some new taxes, but the councillors have shot down all such proposals.”

Leader of the house, SDMC, Inderjeet Sehrawat agreed that the severe financial stress has affected the functioning of the corporation, but added that the civic body will try to clear public welfare schemes during the budget process by “utilising internal resources”.